Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis is already the star of three shows: Everyday Italian, Giada's Weekend Getaways, and Giada in Paradise. She's also been a regular correspondent on NBC's Today. But now, according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine, her name-branding machine is kicking into high gear.

Already appearing in ads for Barilla pasta, she will also be launching a line of oils, vinegars, and spices (to clarify for all you pervs, we're talking about cooking oils) with Barilla due in December. She's designing a line of bakeware for Pyrex Glassware to launch in early 2008. And come September, she will co-host the new fourth hour of Today for one week each month for at least a year, as well as becoming "one of a rotating roster of co-hosts for all of the hour's segments."

Holy over-enunciated-Italian-words, Batman! Emeril may be the face of the Food Network and have his own line of cookware, and Rachael Ray may be the media-saturated star with her own talk show, magazine, and kitchen products, but Giada is really stepping out on her own here. She has really surprised me with her ambition. Her story always made it sound like she was just along for the ride, kind of like, "Oh my God! I wrote a magazine article about cooking for my large, Hollywood family and voila! Food Network asked me to host a show!" But now it seems like our dainty pasta princess is really aiming for household name status. (I was going to call her pasta queen, but that would be insulting Lidia Bastianich.)

And what a name it is. How refreshing to know that a household name could be one as long, complicated, vowel-choked and flat-out Italian as hers. Yes, Ray is technically Sicilian, but I don't think anyone associates "Ray" with Italian ancestry. I know it seems trivial, but I've seen and heard as many possible variations of my last name as possible. ("No, ma'am, you can't insert a consonant between the three vowels just to make it easier for yourself.") Even if it's in some small way, someone like Mrs. De Laurentiis gives hope to all of us. We're here, we have long names, get used to it!